But not just because of the phallic connotations—"Bob"s and "Bill"s have become increasingly rare too.
It feels to me like nicknames of all sorts probably peaked in the USA in the, say, 1950s and have been steadily declining ever since.
Likewise lots of slang seems to have died out, while there’s been rather less new stuff to take its place.
Or am I just a geezer trapped in a time warp of my own making and also trapped in my own SES / educational attainment group which tends to be more formal than some?
Yes. Tons of people have nicknames. Being hostile to reasonable nicknames is not becoming. Most people I believe will honor someone’s preferred nickname because it’s not nice to call someone a nickname they state a specific opposition to. Some people insist on formality, they’re entitled to do that, but it’s just inviting people to use a nickname or other reference to you out of your presence that you’d probably not be fond of.
Don’t misunderstand me. I have no objection to nicknames as such and will call people whatever they like.
I just don’t much encounter people nowadays who use nicknames. And I never much had any interest in bestowing nicknames on people although other people did that frequently. I can remember as a young guy that in many friend-groups of guys nearly everyone had a nickname assigned by the group as they joined. I just don’t observe that happening now.
Whether that’s down to it not happening much any more, or it’s as popular as ever but just not happening where I’m not looking I cannot say. Hence my questions.
I think it’s less common in professional and academic environments than it used to be, but just on the basis that formality avoids unintentional slights, or even intentional ones. But I haven’t noticed any decrease in social relationships, and even among coworkers out side of formal meetings and correspondence. Using someone’s nickname can be an indication of closeness in a relationship.
I vote “Geezer”.
Just kidding. 
My Daddy nicknamed all the kids. Hence “beckdawrek”.
His invention.
That is what I think, though answering factually will require some actual statistics.
But haven’t you noticed that something that may have been awesome in 2010 today goes hard? Or met an “Alex” instead of Alexander?
I think I’d like to distinguish between diminutive short forms and unrelated nicknames. Like “Alex” for Alexander is distinct from “Stinky” for Alexander.
Diminutives are probably as popular as ever given our ever-increasing societal fondness for informality and especially for brevity.
It’s the out-and-out nicknames that bear no relation to legal names that I question. And specifically in the context of generic white Americans. I’m well aware that in some cultures, South Asian in particular, it’s very common for people to have numerous nicknames for different groups: parents, sibs, extended family, coworkers, and friends may all know the same person by different names. None of which match their birth name(s).
My prior GF was Afro-Caribbean. As were many of her co-workers at the hospital. Substantially all of them had nicknames. Some of which were sorta-derived from their given names, but many were flat unrelated.
In every WWII movie everyone in the army squad or navy turret crew or on the submarine or whatever had a nickname. I don’t see that in a gaggle of young co-workers today.
ETA: What @doreen says just below while I was typing another book-length post.
I think it depends a lot on what you consider a “nickname” - I don’t see nearly as many people who have a nickname unrelated to their name bestowed on them by others ( "Bucky’ for someone who doesn’t have anything resembling “Buck” in their name) but I still know plenty of people, young and old who go by Rob, Will, Johnny, Tommy , Liz, Jessie, Britt etc. But I do see a lot fewer "Bob"s and "Bill"s among the younger people - it’s specifically the rhyming diminutives that see to be less popular now.
Just adding a ‘y’ or ‘ee’ sound to a shortened version of someone’s name is over the line for someone you’re not close to. If your name is ‘Thomas’ you might call them ‘Tom’ absent any known disfavor on their part, but you shouldn’t presume they’ll be ok with ‘Tommy’.
Also using diminutive forms in an imbalanced relationship is right out. If your name is Thomas, and you work for Thurston Howell IV who calls you ‘Tommy’ then he ought not object to be called ‘Thirsty’ himself.
At a given point in time, there are many names – both full names and diminuitives – that sometimes carry the connotation of “an older person’s name”. Such names fall into disfavor for a generation or so, and often (not always) come back at least a bit.
“William” – and its derived forms such as “Bill” – was out of vogue (if not gone) for a few decades but has seemed to have a bit of a resurgence since ~2000. No cite, just going by the anecdata of children who attended school with my own children (now ~18-24 year-olds).
…
Something else: While many old-line diminutives are less-common today, there have been newer ones coming to the fore. “Christopher” was almost invariably “Chris” at one time. Now there’s still plenty of “Christophers” going by “Chris” but also a good number going by “Topher” (e.g. actor Topher Grace, who probably inspired the form for others). Similarly, some “Alexanders” go by “Zander/Xander” now rather than “Alex” – some no doubt inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV character.
Another bit of anecdata: ISTM that “Jamie” today is much more common than it once was as a diminutive for “James” than it once was. In my generation, “Jameses” were commonly “Jimmy” as kids, “Jim” as teens and adults. In my age/location cohort, “Jamie” was typically a girl’s name (cf. Jamie Summers, TV’s Bionic Woman).
I know someone whose response to being called Bob is “My friends call me Robert”. He’s around 70 I’d guess.
It is only a slight hijack to mention that Harry started out as a nickname for Henry (or Henri) because of the way the French dropped the n. (Yes, I know they nasalized the vowel.)
There’s alsoo a thing in English English (and also Australian English and probably others) where a child’s nickname is a double-barrelled diminutive - like Ricky-ticky for baby Richard, Henny-penny for Helen, and Lixylix for Elizabeth [all real examples from recent decades].
I think its an extension of baby-talk, because they were usually in effect around the time the child began to talk and may combine with the child’s own attempt to name themselves. That may have been an initial transition point for Richard->Dick and others.
That’s not quite was I was talking about - I still see “William” and “Robert” but “Bill” and “Bob” have almost disappeared. Now they go by “Will” and “Rob”
See, this makes all those other people sound like assholes to me for not calling someone by their preferred name, regardless of whether or not it’s a nickname. I don’t go by my full name to be formal - I do it because I always have and that’s my name and and who I am - parents, siblings, childhood classmates, cousins, etc. - all call me that. The common nickname for my name is all well and fine on its own, but it’s not me and would be just as annoying to be called by it as it would be for a Bobby to be called Robin - just someone being deliberately disrespectful and rude when I’ve done nothing at all but use the name I’ve always used. Though, thankfully, I’ve never gotten the impression anyone cared or thought me over-formal for using my actual name. But perhaps I’m just oblivious - certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
You raise an interesting point. AFAICT, this
is the one and only comment in the entire thread that suggests anyone harbors any negativity about nicknames. And I’m not sure what motivated it.
Particular nicknames seem to fall in and out of favor, though, in ways that make me a bit skeptical about this explanation. To take one historical community that I’m especially familiar with, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men had at least three actors with the given name William (Kempe, Shakespeare, Sly), ALL of whom went by “Will” (we have solid contemporary evidence in all three cases). They just seem to have used last names when they wanted to differentiate – they didn’t decide that someone was going to be “Bill” instead. (Elizabethans in general don’t seem to have used “Bill” or “Bob” or “Rick” or “Ed” much, if at all; instead, you had dozens and dozens of guys answering to “Will,” “Robin,” “Dick,” and “Ned,” the last one being a nickname for the moderately-common name “Edmund” as well as the super-common “Edward.”)
‘Chip’ and ‘June’ were once nicknames for ‘juniors,’ but I think they’ve largely fallen by the wayside. ‘Trey’ and ‘Trip’ somewhat less so, maybe , for III’s?
However, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, almost all of my Black classmates had aome nickname. Don’t know if that’s still the case, but I know very often when a Black person has committed a crime, there is often a ‘street name.’ Maybe it started out as just a nickname in their pre-crime days.
I’ve also met a few Benjamins who go by “Jamin” (pronounced JAY-min).
Seems like it’s come up in a conversation about nicknames before (seems likely same poster, but I don’t actually recall). I guess some people just find not using nicknames excessively formal or snobby and I don’t agree with the sentiment, so responded when I saw it.
I do agree with those who think it feasible that the variety of nicknames ties in to the common-ness of certain names. And names are less common (at least in the US) than they used to be. In 1880, the three most common baby boy names were John, William, and James and together they made up over 20% of the names boys were given that year. Girls were Mary, Anna, and Emma, but they only made up about 12% of girl names that year. For 2024, it was Liam, Noah, and Oliver, making up about 3% of baby boy names for the year and Olivia, Emma, and Amelia, also making up less than 3% of baby girl names that year.
On the topic of certain nicknames historically going in and out of fashion - I don’t know it that’s true (all those “Wills” may have already had nicknames by time they met each other - it’s in childhood you’d expect the nickname to get assigned and then I, at least, would expect the person to keep the nickname from there on out), but if so, I wonder if it’s like names get to sounding old, so you don’t want to call your kid by it, but it’s still the done thing to name the kid after parent/grandparent as official name.